Inhibition of Glucose Oxidation by 6-Deoxy-D-Glucose. ∗ †

Abstract

Summary

6-Deoxy-D-glucose has been shown to be an inhibitor of glucose oxidation in rat kidney slices, mouse adipose tissue, and rat diaphragm. The raio of 6-DOG to glucose which gave a 50% inhibition of glucose oxidation corresponded to 12:1 in rat kidney slices and rat diaphragm and 4:1 in mouse adipose tissue. The inhibition of glucose oxidation in mouse adipose tissue was shown to be reversible. Experiments using rat diaphragm tissue showed that 6-DOG inhibited uptake of glucose in proportion to decrease in glucose oxidation. Incubation of mouse adipose tissue with 6-DOG uniformly labeled with C¹⁴ did not result in formation of measurable amounts of C¹⁴O₂. It is concluded that this compound is incapable of complete oxidation in this tissue. It is believed that the site of competitive inhibition is either at the cell entry mechanism or at the hexokinase reaction. Thus, the metabolic block produced by 6-DOG should be less complex than that produced by the 2-position modified sugars. The use of 6-DOG may be very useful for studying cell permeation mechanisms.